Окончательный отчет: Совет президента по оценке Федерального агентства по управлению чрезвычайными ситуациями: 7 мая 2026 года

What should America expect from its disaster response system when the next hurricane, wildfire, flood, earthquake, cyberattack, or national emergency arrives? This book examines one of the most consequential public policy questions facing the United States: how to rebuild the nation’s emergency management system so that disaster response is faster, more accountable, more locally grounded, and more resilient. Drawing from a comprehensive review of FEMA’s current structure, programs, costs, delays, and operational challenges, this book presents a clear argument for transforming the way America prepares for, responds to, and recovers from disasters. At its center is a simple but powerful doctrine: disaster response should be locally executed, state or tribally managed, and federally supported. For decades, FEMA has been the central symbol of federal disaster relief. Yet as disasters have grown more frequent, more complex, and more expensive, the system has become increasingly burdened by bureaucracy, slow reimbursement models, administrative overhead, duplicative programs, outdated processes, and unclear responsibility among federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private-sector, nonprofit, and faith-based partners. This book explores a new model for national resilience. It calls for empowering states, local governments, tribes, and territories to lead, while preserving a strong federal backbone for catastrophic events that exceed local and state capacity. It examines how clearer standards, better training, improved credentialing, interoperable systems, and a national resource inventory could help communities respond faster and coordinate more effectively when lives are at risk. The book also looks closely at FEMA’s major assistance programs and proposes reforms designed to move money and support faster to the people and communities that need it most. Instead of slow, project-by-project reimbursement systems, it outlines direct funding models for public recovery. Instead of confusing layers of Individual Assistance, it describes a streamlined direct payment approach for disaster survivors whose homes are destroyed or made uninhabitable. Instead of delayed mitigation funding that often arrives after rebuilding has already begun, it considers a two-phase risk reduction model that puts mitigation dollars to work earlier. Readers will also find a detailed discussion of the National Flood Insurance Program, including its financial instability, outdated risk information, repetitive loss challenges, and the need for modernized flood risk pricing, private-market participation, and stronger local land-use decisions. The book argues that true resilience requires not only better federal programs but also better incentives for preparedness, insurance, mitigation, and responsible rebuilding. At a broader level, this book is about restoring public trust. It asks how taxpayer dollars can be used more effectively, how administrative costs can be reduced, how disaster aid can reach survivors faster, and how the nation can create a system that rewards readiness instead of dependence. It also addresses the importance of partnerships with the private sector, nonprofit organizations, volunteer groups, faith-based organizations, emergency managers, first responders, and local leaders who are often closest to the crisis long before federal help arrives. This is a book for emergency managers, public officials, policy makers, first responders, disaster recovery professionals, state and local leaders, infrastructure planners, nonprofit executives, public administration students, homeland security professionals, and citizens who want to understand how disaster response really works—and how it could work better.